Jacques Nompar de Caumont, Duc de La Force, was said to be "le seul grand seigneur huguenot" - the only great, Huguenot lord in France. As a duke and peer, Jacques was definitely a grand lord - he was also a Protestant.
Protestantism had not entirely passed by France which otherwise remained staunchly catholic. Few of the aristocrats had adopted the new religion but they were far outnumbered. Until the 1680's this divergence was treated rather as the proverbial elephant in the room - not to be acknowledged. However, when Louis XIV revoked the Edict of Nantes in October 1685 spelled disaster for Protestants within France.
Established as so-called "irrevocable law" (ironic, considering that it not even last a century), the Edict of Nantes had established fundamental rights for Protestants within France. Catholicism was acknowledged as the state religion but Protestants were ensured their freedom of religion. Yet, with the stroke of a pen, Louis XIV made Protestantism illegal - those practicing were given a dire ultimatum: convert to Catholicism or leave France (and everything you have).
Whereas thousands of commoners found themselves in a downright deadly situation - with evidence of some being tortured into conversion or facing starvation as a result of having to abandon every earthly belonging - the courtiers were not in direct peril.
Jacques Nompar, for one, was somewhat protected by his status as a duke and peer - or so he might have thought. Attempts were made to make Jacques willingly convert - civilised conversation, gentle prodding etc. etc. However, two factors made the conversion almost impossible. For one, Jacques Nompar does not appear to have had any particular, personal interest in religion. While there is little doubt that he did believe in god, the finer mechanisms of Protestantism versus Catholicism were far more open to discussion than for most of his contemporaries. One of those contemporaries also makes up the second factor. His second wife (and mother of his sons) was an intensely Protestant woman whose devotion to her faith made even the king's attempts to convert her utterly useless. The fact that the two enjoyed a close relationship certainly heightened the influence her conviction had on her more pliable husband.
Fanatical, Jacques certain was not, yet his refusal to simply obey and convert was a sore spot for the king. Having attempted the gentle approach, the king had enough of his "obstinacy" and decided that if the duke could not be persuaded, he could be forced.
On 22 April 1685 (mind you, before the official revocation of the Edict of Nantes), the Duc de La Force was arrested by the king's police while staying in Paris. As befit his rank, he was escorted to the Bastille. There, he was subjected to immense pressure with the background of the royal fortress to remind him of his position. To convince him of the errors of his ways, the king appointed M. Bordes who was in for a long and tiring mental battle. In the end, the duke remained steadfast - he would not convert.
Meanwhile, if the duke was determined not to convert, the king was determined not to release him until he did. Thus, two years later, Jacques Nompar was still imprisoned. He had been placed under the care of the Duc de Duras who could eventually report to the king that his charge was seriously ill. Whether the illness was a matter of chance or the result of misuse is not known. Realising that he might die in prison, Jacques Nompar gave the king the conversion he wanted - on paper, at least.
For his compliance, he was released into the care of his wife. She, too, was a staunch Protestant, but had remained out of prison although the king had tried to force her into a conversion, too. Suzanne de Béringhen (as was her name) was described as being even more determined in her faith than her husband and she undoubtedly supported his return to Protestantism. It says something of her faith that her husband was considered a reasonable target for "persuasion" whereas she was "a lost cause".
Having been nursed back to health, it soon became clear that Jacques Nompar had little intention to actually become a proper Catholic. Angry at the seeming turnabout, the king promptly refused to grand Jacques Nompar the prestigious Order of St. Michel. According to Dangeau, the king even deigned to have private discussions with the duke on the importance of his converting. When that did not have the desired effect, Jacques was sent to his estates to mull things over in 1686. However, if the king had thought that some good old-fashioned public snubbing would bring the duke to heel, he was wrong. Jacques Nompar continued his insistence of religious freedom, much to the annoyance of the king. Perhaps the irritation was made even worse by the fact that Jacques continuously allowed the king's preachers to assume that they had won.
In May 1686, the Mercure Gallante reported that the Duc de La Force had finally been convinced of the "errors of Protestantism" and had therefore become a good Catholic. It did not even last a year before it became clear that that was definitely not the case. Still, the same publication gleefully reported on the successful conversion of his sons not long after.
Eventually, Louis XIV could not abide the open defiance of an obviously Protestant duke at his own court. It was honestly getting embarrassing considering the harsh measures taken everywhere else; the duke's refusal could potentially be seen as disobedience which in itself would be damaging to the king's power. The duke himself did nothing to hide his continued adherence to Protestantism. His private château left little doubt that its lord was not a Catholic. Even worse, from the king's point of view, he allowed his household servants to also continue in their Protestantism. In a particularly petty move, three servants were seized from his estate and imprisoned.
Meanwhile, his papers were seized and his private testament was discovered which showed that he still considered himself a Protestant. If the king ever needed concrete proof that the abjuration had been false, he had it now. There was only one thing to do: sent him back to the Bastille.
So, on 14 July 1689, Jacques Nompar was once again escorted back to the Bastille. It was whispered that his arrest was the result of an alleged conspiracy with the British. Conveniently, that would serve to draw a link between the French rival and this obstinate duke, thus villainising both. The Duchesse did not escape notice either. She remained a thorn in the eye of the king - it was one thing to imprison an obstinate nobleman but Louis XIV had always been raised to be the very picture of gallantry. It did not sit right with him to force the Duchesse into the Bastille as well - consequently, she remained under house arrest, far from her husband. House arrest turned into downright prisons where she was kept as isolated as possible.
The duke had three sons and four daughters - before escorting Jacques to his prison, the king made a show of removing his children. On the orders of the king, the daughters were quickly dispatched to convents where they would be converted; meanwhile, the sons quickly bowed to the pressure and lack of any type of support. They would not be handed back to their parents afterwards but would be the charges of their god-mother, the Duchesse de Saint-Simon. One of the girls, Marie-Anne-Louise, was rewarded with a position in the household of the dauphine and a marriage. Sadly, she would widowed after just two years and would later be exiled from court for improper conduct - the whispers of an illegitimate child with none less than the Grand Dauphin could explain the reason.
Another, Jeanne, eagerly took to convincing the court that she had indeed converted and was promptly married off advantageously to the marquis de Courtomer. The two others remained at the convent as nuns.
It must have been heartbreaking, particularly for the Duchesse de La Force, to have her children forcibly removed and then bullied into converting to a religion she herself had always resisted. Yet, there was nothing to be done.
The entire de La Force-family soon came under fire, although not nearly as intensely as the head of their house. Many fled to England or the Netherlands where the men joined the army or simply blended into the aristocracy. For one, Pierre Nompar de Caumont married the daughter of another Huguenot who happened to serve as the Prince of Wales' doctor.
What of Jacques Nompar? He remained imprisoned until 29 April 1691 before being transferred to a monastery. It was said that he - having always been less fiercely religious than his wife - had actually wanted to convert this time. Perhaps the king thought the change of scenery would evoke the same change of heart as it had for his daughters? If so, the king was mistaken. Whatever change might have happened in the monastery, once he was permitted back to his estates, his wife was released as well - and she quickly undid the persuasive techniques of the monks. The king was furious with the Duchesse; in his mind, she was undoing everything he had spent years accomplishing. He even went so far as to order her to relocate as she was "inspiring her husband with sentiments contrary to the good faith".
Obeying, the Duchesse retired - for a while. Then she returned to her husband which led the king to continue his spying on the couple, irate that the duke listened more to his wife than his king. He even dispatched both policemen and M. Bordes to counteract the influence of the Duchesse.
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| Henri Jacques - the heir who turned Catholic with a vengeance |
By the time he was 67, Jacques' health was seriously declining. It soon became clear that he was dying. Realising that they had to move quickly to ensure his soul for the Catholic faith, he was continuously pressed to reconsider before it was too late. The Duchesse was even forcibly kept from his apartment to prevent any "relapse". Yet, Jacques Nompar refused - proving that his initial abjuration had been a sham. He would die as he had lived - as a Protestant. And so he did, expiring on 19 April 1699.
Louis XIV was allegedly told that he died a good Catholic although he never did make a genuine abjuration.
Upon his death, the Duchesse de La Force finally obtained permission to leave France for England where she was received with sympathy. She was allegedly presented with the age-old dilemma: convert or go into exile. She would die in England at 81, having survived Louis XIV by 16 years and his attempts at forcible conversion even longer. Ironically, one of her own sons - the heir, Henri Jacques - became intensely Catholic (unfortunately of the bigoted kind) who would forcibly convert those living on his estates.
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